Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of more than 50 U.S. senators has urged President Barack Obama
to approve the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would connect Canadian oil
sands to refineries in Texas.

“This is about something that Americans want. It’s about energy for this country,” Sen. John
Hoeven, R-N.D., said yesterday.

Hoeven and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., wrotea letter to Obama, signed by 51 other senators, urging
him to approve the TransCanada Corp. project, which has been pending for nearly 41/2 years.

The letter came a day after Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved a revised route for the
pipeline to travel through the state while avoiding ecologically sensitive areas.

“Nebraska has now addressed the outstanding concerns you raised when you denied the permit, and
we therefore urge you to finish expeditiously the review process and approve the pipeline,” the
letter said.

Hoeven and Baucus represent the booming Bakken oil region. The $5.3 billion pipeline would carry
830,000 barrels of oil a day including some from the Bakken. The southern section of the project,
from Texas to Oklahoma, already is being built. It did not require a federal permit because it does
not cross the national border.

The two senators organized a similar bipartisan effort in November that drew signatures from 18
senators: nine Republicans and nine Democrats.

Nine Democrats also signed yesterday’s letter, but this time they were joined by 44
Republicans.

“We ask you not to move the goal posts, as opponents of this project have pressed you to do,”
the letter said.

The State Department’s environmental review of the line is expected any day, and there will be a
public comment period after that, which could help determine exactly when the administration will
decide on the project.

Interest in the fate of the pipeline has been heightened after Obama’s vow at the start of his
second term to fight climate change.

Hoeven told reporters that he would meet soon with Sen. John Kerry, Obama’s nominee to become
secretary of state.

Environmentalists want the administration to reject the pipeline because the oil sands it would
carry are more carbon intensive than average crude refined in the country.